Yoga Ed

Yoga Ed, a privately-funded program, brought yoga instruction to an urban K-8 school where space for physical education was limited. Throughout the school year, students in grades K-5 received 60 minutes of yoga instruction per week and students in 6th-8th grade received 120 minutes of yoga instruction per week. Classes were taught by Yoga Ed instructors.

Kindergarteners through 2nd graders learned physical awareness and skills, such as spatial awareness, attention, coordination, balance, strength and flexibility. Third through 5th graders learned mental/emotional awareness and skills such as focus, emotional awareness, attention to breath, and impact of thoughts and choices. Sixth through 8th graders learned self/community/universal awareness and skills such as values, goals, problem solving, and control of breath, thoughts and behavior.

The goal of the program was to improve the physical and mental well-being of students through practicing yoga.

Yoga Ed was implemented at The Accelerated School, a charter school located in South Central Los Angeles with a predominantly African-American and Hispanic student population. Throughout the school year, 405 students participated in the program. The students completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of the year. Core subject teachers and yoga teachers also completed questionnaires about the students' performance in yoga and in school.

The students reported feeling better about themselves after participating in the yoga curriculum. They also showed an improvement in strength and flexibility from measurements the previous year. Teachers reported a decrease in discipline problems and felt that students were better equipped to handle stress. Finally, middle school students' grades were positively correlated with yoga participation.